The
stowaway teenager who miraculously survived a five hour flight to Hawaii
hidden in the wheel well of a Boeing 767 was falsely told by his own
father that his mother was dead – and he discovered the truth two years
ago, it was claimed today.

Yahya
Abdi – pictured here for the first time - ran away from the home he
shares with his father, stepmother and siblings because he wanted to
find his mom, who he has not seen since 2006.

His mother Ubah Mohamed Abdullahi, 35, was left heartbroken when she split from her husband Abdulahi Abdi Yusef.

Stowaway: This is Yahya Abdi, 15, the boy who
stunned the world when he flew for more than five hours in the wheel
well of a Boeing 767 from California to Hawaii on an apparent mission to
visit his mother in Somalia

He remarried a woman called Sainab Abdi and then left with Ubah’s three children to travel to the United States.

But
she is now in the process of immigrating to America and is determined
to win her children back, exclusively telling MailOnline, ‘I need my
children and they need me’.

Speaking
on the phone through a translator from the Sheed-dheer Refugee camp in
Ethiopia, she explained how her ex-husband had told her children, Yahya,
Yassir and Najma she was killed in a rocket attack in Mogadishu.

Yahya Abdi, (top right) then aged 10 in November 2008 in the Boli District of Ethiopia

Apparently furious Yahya only found out she was still alive two years ago, through the local Somali community.

The emotional mother said: ‘When they imigrated to the United they told the authorities I was dead.

'Then
they later told my children I was killed in a rocket attack in
Mogadishu. They killed me in my children’s minds. They violated me.

‘If
I could give a message to my son I would say, I am still alive and I
will come one day. Please stay calm and do not do anything stupid.

‘I
am extremely worried about my son. The fact he did what he did shows
he’s unhappy. I need a psychologist to help him and make sure he doesn’t
do anything stupid and kill himself.’

She
went on: ‘I have been so worried and upset since I heard the news, I
have been crying and crying. I have not seen my children since 2006 and I
miss them.

‘I
am currently in the process of getting a sponsor to move to the United
States. It is a long process, but I will come and I will get full
custody of my children.

‘I
want the American Government to look after them until I come because I
do not believe they are safe with their father and their stepmother. She
treats my children badly, she has her own children and she doesn’t care
about mine.

‘Their
rights have been violated and so have mine. I have no rights in Africa.
They were taken away by force and I didn’t have anyone to help me. I
need help to get them back. That is what I dream of.’

And
in a stinging attack on her ex-husband, she added: ‘If I had the chance
to speak to him I would say, ‘You didn’t think of their rights because
of the negative emotions you have towards me.

A Santa Clara Police car drives past a house believed to be the home of a boy who stowed away in the wheel well of an airplane is seen on Wednesday, April 23, 2014

‘You are supposed to protect them and put them first, but you didn’t do what was best for them. Now look what has happened.’

Ubah
split from her husband in 2000 and after he remarried, she says he took
her children away from her and then moved to the United States in about
2006.

On Wednesday, Yahya’s father said Allah saved the boy as he spoke out for the first time.Abdilahi said he was shocked when Hawaiian authorities called him on Sunday to reveal they had found his son.

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Yahya
was found on the tarmac in Maui after climbing into a plane at a San
Jose airport and then likely passing out when it took off - surviving
low oxygen levels and freezing temperatures.

'When
I watched the analysis about the extraordinary and dangerous trip of my
son on local TVs and that Allah had saved him, I thanked God and I was
very happy,' the relieved father told VOA.

'He
was always talking about going back to Africa, where his grandparents
still live,' his father said, adding that the living conditions there
did not make going back an option.

He
added that his son did not receive a good education in Africa and has
struggled while at school in the U.S. He said that these school problems
appeared to be bothering him.

Rebuke: Mukhtar Guleb, a cousin of Yahya's stepmother Sainab was critical of his mother's comments

But another family member has criticized Abdilahi’s interview, stating that Yahya is actually a very clever young man.

Mukhtar
Guleb, a cousin of Yahya’s stepmother Sainab, has lived in the US for
17 years after moving from Somalia and he knows the family well.

He said: ‘‘Yahya is very clever. Where he came from in Somalia there were no schools, but he is still a clever boy.

'Maybe his grades suffered a bit in the last year or so because he was unhappy at home, but that is all.

‘He
thought his mother was dead and only found out she was alive two years
ago. He was incredibly unhappy and very angry with his father.

‘He is a young boy, so he took the action he did. When you are a teenager you have incredible drive.

‘He
will have no real concept of the size of the world and the size of
Africa. He would have simply thought, ‘If I can get on a plane, I can
get out in Africa and ask people where my mother is’. He was prepared to
die to find her.’

He also went on to say his cousin Sainab treated Yahya badly, showing huge favouritism towards her own biological children.

He
said: ‘She always shouts at Yahya, They really don’t get on. She thinks
her own children are little kings and queens, but that is not the way
she treats Yahya, Yassir and Najma.

Miraculous: The boy, identified by his father as Yahya Abdi, is pictured after he was found on the tarmac in Maui on Sunday. He ran away in an attempt to reunite with his mother, who lives in Somalia

‘They
definitely get a bad deal from her. I do not think she is a nice person
at all. And it seems Abdulahi does nothing to stop her.

‘I
have heard Yahya ask his father to do something, but he doesn’t. I
think he is irresponsible. He didn’t realise his own son was missing for
36 hours, that is not good. I believe he cares more about his wife than
his children. He cannot control her.’

Finally
he added: ‘This is a bad situation and there are only two options.
Either he stays with dad and stepmother or the state look after him. I
think the second option is best because he will be properly looked
after.

Then, if and when his mother arrives in America she can take her children back.’

Following
his ordeal, the teenager is ‘resting comfortably’ at a hospital in
Hawaii, spokeswoman Kayla Rosenfeld of the state's Department of Human
Services said in a statement.

The
young Santa Clara resident is in the custody of the department's Child
Welfare Services division, and officials were working to ensure his safe
return to California, she said.

The teen's friends at Santa Clara High School were stunned to learn of his death-defying adventure.

Hiding place: This shows where the teenager stowed away on the Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 767

‘He
was kind of shy,’ Emanuael Golla told KGO-TV. ‘He really didn't speak
that much. But we were all surprised about what happened. We didn't
really think it was him, but we're happy to know that he's all right.’

The boy enrolled in Santa Clara High only a few months ago, after leaving nearby Oak Grove High School.

On
Tuesday, it emerged that the 15-year-old runaway allegedly spent up to
six hours undetected at Mineta San Jose International Airport after
scaling a fence at around 1am.

In
San Jose, airport officials said they were reviewing how the boy
slipped through security that includes video surveillance, German
shepherds and Segway-riding police officers.

After
taking off around 8am, the Hawaiian Airlines jet landed in Maui at
10.30am (local time) and he eventually stumbled out of his hiding place
an hour later.

On
Tuesday MailOnline revealed that he actually left his family home on
Friday night, meaning he was missing for around 36 hours by the time he
was found on the tarmac at Maui airport.

Despite his lengthy absence, Santa Clara police have confirmed his family did not file a missing persons report.

Home: The teen lived with his father and stepmother at this Santa Clara home - but vanished on Friday

Breach: The boy scrambled over a fence at Mineta San Jose International Airport in the dark, crossed a tarmac and climbed into a jetliner's wheel well

According to Maui airport manager Marvin Moniz, the boy did not want to go home to his father.

'He told us that he wanted to go and live with his mother,' he explained to MailOnline. 'He said he missed her.

'It
was clear from talking to him that he was not happy and he did not want
to return home. He did not get on with his stepmother and did not like
living with her. He was a teenager who was upset and he was not ready to
go back.’

Explaining
the events leading up to Yahya’s miraculous journey, Mr Omiz said: ‘The
boy told us that he lived with his father and his stepmother, who he
did not get on with.

They had an argument on Friday. I do not know what it was about, but it made him decide to run away.

‘He
left on Friday evening and spent the night somewhere. Then he said he
walked to the airport. As far as I know he hopped the fence at about 9pm
(Hawaii time) and then ran to a plane and hid.

Mr
Moniz went on: 'When we found him he was very disorientated and weak.
We gave him some teriyaki meatballs, rice and salad to give him some
strength.

How he did it: It is believed the teen went into some sort of 'hibernation' to be able to survive the extreme conditions

'He spoke perfect English and didn’t really have an accent, so I assume he had been in the US for a long time.

'He
seemed OK physically. The only thing he complained about was that his
ears hurt. He said all the noise and the vibrations had given him a
really bad ringing in his ears.'

The incredible story has been met with disbelief by all those who know the teenager and his family.Neighbour
Amy McGinn told KTVU: 'They are very quiet, very private. When I heard
there was an argument, that was surprising, because I never hear
anything, like loud noises from the house.'

McGinn added that the boy's father drives a taxi, while the stepmother is mostly seen taking her children to and from school.

It
was not immediately clear how the boy stayed alive in the unpressurized
space, where temperatures at cruising altitude can fall well below zero
and the air is too thin for humans to stay conscious.

An FAA study of stowaways found that some survive by going into a hibernation-like state.

The FAA says 105 stowaways have sneaked aboard 94 flights worldwide since 1947, and about one out of four survived.

But
agency studies say the actual numbers are probably higher, as some
survivors may have escaped unnoticed, and bodies could fall into the
ocean undetected.